Othermorphs 1: The Invasion
by DougGuns
Summary: Chance meetings at a suburban mall change the lives of seven teenagers. In this alternate timeline, will the Animorphs be doomed by flaws in the group or will the new elements forge a stronger alloy? Will closely follow the early books, though with changes in the exact events.
1. Chapter 1: Death of an Alien

_I do not own Animorphs, the characters, aliens, technology, names and other original material from the Animorphs series. It's all K.A. Applegate's property and ideas. Any resemblance to anything other than a children's book series is purely coincidental. All use of KAA's characters and setting is intended as an homage and not for personal gain._

My name is Jake. I can't tell you much more about myself, or my friends. We're in trouble and so is the whole human race.

This all started on a perfectly ordinary night. I was hanging out at the mall with my best friend Marco, mostly just avoiding going home. See I had been trying to make the basketball team, where my older brother Tom had been a star when he went to my school. I didn't make it, and I was kind of ashamed to go home and tell him. We had been growing apart, and I thought that if I was on the team, that might bring us closer together. But now, I'd have to tell him that I'd probably never be a basketball player like him. I was kind of bummed, so I was dawdling with Marco, playing video games, even if I wasn't really paying attention to what we were doing, thinking about the team and Tom. Of course, that just made us lose the game faster, so I ended up running out of quarters and we headed out of the arcade, with Marco busting me the whole way.

Marco and I have been best friends forever, even if we aren't much alike at first glance. I'm kind of big for my age, but otherwise, I'm an ordinary kid. Marco is short and swarthy - his mom was Hispanic – and he's pretty smart. Not that he's a nerd or anything, he's really funny and is pretty quick with a joke or nickname or a sarcastic comment. He acts like everything's a big joke and doesn't take anything seriously, but he's also a good friend and we can totally count on each other. That's why he hung out with me even though I messed up his game because I was distracted and that's why I let him rag on me at times like this.

We were walking through the mall to the exit when we passed a couple of kids from our school coming out of Spencer's. They looked like they were arguing about something, and I started to steer clear of them. One of them was this dweeby kid named Tobias. He had a kind of messed up family situation and didn't have any friends and he got picked on a lot. I ran into him in the bathroom in school not long ago where these two jerks were trying to stuff his head into a toilet and I made them stop. Ever since then, he hangs around me a lot. I guess that made me one of the closest things he had to a friend. He's not bad usually, but when you've just got cut from your brother's old team, you don't want anyone treating you like some big hero.

There was another reason I didn't want to hang with him right then, and that was the kid he was with. The only other friend I had ever seen him with. That other kid didn't have many friends either, because he was new in town - his family moved around a lot. I think that was why he and Tobias hung out, even though they didn't seem to have anything else in common. He was cocky and talked tough, where Tobias had trouble meeting your eye, and he had already been in trouble for bringing a creepy replica dagger to school. Tobias doesn't seem like the kind of kid to do something that bold or dumb, much less be able to afford toys like that. He was blond like Tobias, but not quite as tall, and he always looked at you like he was smarter and was knew what you were up to. He kind of got on my nerves.

His name was David.

I tried to steer Marco away from them before Tobias spotted me, because I wasn't in the mood for Tobias trying to be all buddy-buddy or David making little comments to cut me down and make himself seem tougher, like he's the big shot in the room. Unfortunately, Marco was so busy ranting about how any idiot should have been able to beat the SleazeTroll in our game, that he never noticed until Tobias called out to me. We were stuck. So we ended up stopping to talk to them.

It turned out that David had been trying to get Tobias to shoplift these tee shirts from the store they came out of, like just for fun or something. It was actually surprising that Tobias stood up to somebody hard enough not to go through with it, and I kind of felt a little more respect for him. Marco, of course, couldn't resist telling David how dumb he had acted, while David was both trying to act innocent, and to make like Tobias was a wimp for not helping him.

While they argued, I glanced around the mall, which had fewer kids in it, since everyone was going home, and I saw my cousin Rachel with a couple of her friends. One of them was Cassie, who's really cool and pretty and is as close to a veterinarian as a kid can be. We kind of like hanging out sometimes, and Rachel can be cool for a girl. She wouldn't be putting up with David's mouth, that's for sure.

I tried to catch their eyes, and I thought for a minute they might come over, but then they looked at the group of us and the three of them turned away and headed out the mall exit. Cassie might have glanced back at me for a second, but that was it.

I got annoyed and told Tobias and David that I had to get home. Marco gave me a look, but he agreed and we left.

Tobias and David came out behind us. They walked with us for most of the way, it turned out that David lived in the same part of town where I did and Marco used to, before his mom died. I thought about maybe cutting through the abandoned construction site, which was the shorter way home, but it was pretty dangerous and would get us in trouble. Of course, David started bragging about how he hung out in the construction site all of the time, and broke bottles and messed with some of the equipment that was left there.

"Fine," I told him. "You do that. We gotta get home. Come on, Marco."

"Yeah," he said. "Sorry, we don't have time to do such _awesome_ stuff like play with the junk homeless people leave behind." Marco rolled his eyes, as if to say he was so much more mature than David and couldn't believe what a dork he was being. We started walking the long way home, but David kept grumbling the whole way behind us about how much faster it would be to go through the site.

We were almost home when I heard Tobias say "What's that?"

We all turned to see where he was pointing, and we saw this really fast blue-white light rip across the sky.

"Is that a comet?" wondered Marco.

"No, WAY!" yelled David. "Look, it's slowing down! Nothing in nature does that. It's headed right to the construction site, too!" He turned to give me a dirty look. "We'd be there to see it come down if you guys weren't such wusses!"

"Well, let's go check it out!" said Tobias. He started moving in the direction of the site.

"Are you crazy?" called Marco. "We have no idea what that is. We're just kids."

"Yeah," said David. "What if that's a cruise missile or something?" He hadn't taken a step to follow his 'friend'. So much for all his tough talk.

"I don't care," Tobias said in a more firm tone than I had ever heard him use. "I don't think it's a missile or anything. I don't know what it is, but I think it might be the most important thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm going to find it and see what it is. You guys don't have to come if you don't want." His voice kind of trailed off, like he didn't really expect anyone to be interested in anything he cared about. I felt kind of bad for him, so I said I'd check it out too. Marco wasn't crazy about the idea, but he came with me. I hoped it wouldn't be anything bad, I'd have hated to think I was dragging him into trouble just because I felt sorry for the weird kid with only a jerk for a friend. And ditching David had to be a plus...

"Don't worry Davy-boy," called Marco over his shoulder. "We'll watch your buddy's back. I mean, it's just the boring old construction site. You go there all the time, so how tough could it be?" Okay, Marco can be funny, but his mouth also can make problems. This time, it kind of goaded David into following us.

The light dropped out of the sky and looked like it had actually landed in the empty area by the buildings that weren't finished yet, where they dumped some junk. We were too far to get a good look at it, but it almost seemed to have stopped above the construction site and drop straight down. We ran across the field separating our neighborhood from the site, until we finally got in among the buildings and piles of construction materials. The flying saucer, or whatever it was, had been down there for more than 20 minutes by the time we reached the outskirts of the site, panting and out of breath.

I tried to get everyone to stop as we got close to one of the half-finished walls, so we could maybe sneak up on it carefully and maybe get a look at it from a distance first, but Tobias ignored me and kept going, even though he was out of shape and pretty beat by the long run. We scrambled to follow after him, and then we almost ran him over, because he was stopped, staring at what had to have been the flying object we had spotted.

The UFO was parked in the middle of junk piles and walls that nobody had finished building. It had to be a spaceship, because there was nothing like it on Earth. It was about as long as a school bus, with two short wings holding cylinders with a blue glow coming out their rears. At the front was a bulging pod shaped like an egg, and a long curving tail with a sharp point aiming forwards, like a weapon or something.

There was a rounded opening on the side of the ship, and in the dirt in front of it a …a thing … was sprawled. It was all blue, and shaped more like a centaur than a person, with a long tail curving up from the back like the tail of the ship. His head had two eyes and slits but no mouth-like opening or nose sticking out. It looked like he might have had horns or something, but then one of them moved, and I saw it was more like a stalk with an eye on the end. It was looking directly at us.

{Do not be afraid.} a voice spoke inside my head. {I will not harm you.} It was not exactly like words, more like feelings and images, and there was definitely no sound.

David scrunched up his face for a minute before turning to us and saying "I tried to talk, but I don't think he can read my mind."

{I cannot read your minds, but I can understand your words,} the alien mind-voice said. {You must leave this place! I have lingered too long and I can no longer …never mind. I am dying and when I do, you must not be seen here! I cannot protect you.}

"No, we can get you doctors. There has to be something we can do!" protested Tobias. He had moved all the way to the alien's side and took his hand. He seemed entranced by the blue creature, and the alien seemed to return his interest, turning his whole head to look at Tobias while the eyestalks on his head pointed at me and Marco and David.

"Yeah, people are going to want to meet you, to learn about you and your people," I said. I hated the idea that this alien might die. Somehow, I got the feeling from his mind-voice that he was a good person, that there was a kind of nobility and strength to him. It sounds corny I guess, but I just felt like there was something to admire in this alien. "We've never heard of real aliens from other planets coming here before."

{Many aliens are here.} We were shocked, exchanging looks.

"What…how…where…?" We all tried to talk at once.

"Can any of them help you?" Tobias got his question out, not shouting, but quietly and firmly sounding more determined than I ever heard him.

{No. They are enemies of my people and yours. We have just fought a battle in space near this world, and my people, the Andalites, were defeated. I was wounded in that battle and soon I shall die of my wounds. Our enemies are the Yeerks, and they have already begun their invasion of your world! }

Words and images poured through my mind as the Andalite explained about the Yeerks and how they took over people's bodies, how they were sweeping through the galaxy, barely held back by the Andalites, the most powerful and advanced species in the known universe. He conveyed to us the tragedy of other races that had fallen, giving us names, and scary images with the names. Walking dinosaurs covered with razor blades, called Hork-Bajir and hideous, devouring worms called Taxxons. How anyone we met could be a Controller, a person with a Yeerk in his brain. I knew we could never get him help, because any adult we told about him could be one of his enemies. Anyone we tried to get to help him, could turn out to be his assassin.

"This isn't fair!" I protested. "What are we supposed to do?"

{You must wait for my people! They will return one day in greater numbers, and they will save this planet.}

"Yeah, right," sneered David. "The Yeerks kicked your butts! What chance do we have? Are we supposed to just sit here and hope they don't grab us and put slugs in our brains?"

{Perhaps…perhaps there is something I can give you,} the Andalite 'said' thoughtfully. {It is forbidden, but I have already erred once...} His voice got firmer, like he had made a choice. He lifted his free hand, Tobias was still holding the other, and held up a blue cube. {Each of you place your hands on the device.}

Marco and David jostled in beside Tobias and me. Tobias touched the top, opposite the Andalite's hand. I touched the side facing us, and Marco and David each touched one of the sides next to it. The Andalite turned his head to look at each one of us. {I will give you a power that may help protect you from the Yeerks. You will gain the ability to touch any living animal and acquire its DNA. You will then be able to use that DNA to morph into the form of that animal. Your human bodies are weak and ill-adapted to the dangers of your world, but you will be able to use the many life forms of Earth to hide as ordinary creatures, or flee pursuit. Even if caught, they cannot infest you with a Yeerk while morphed, which will give you some protection.}

None of us could believe what we were hearing. {However, there is a danger,} he went on. {You must not stay morphed for more than two hours. If you do, you will be trapped in your new form forever. And sometimes there are difficulties in controlling a new morph. You will also be subject to the same dangers and weaknesses of whatever animals you choose to morph. Do you consent to receive this power? I will not give it to anyone unwillingly, for this is my people's greatest technology. I would not offer it at all if I could see another way to preserve your life. All your lives.}

One by one we agreed. I wasn't sure how much I believed him, but I really felt we could trust the Andalite, from his thought speech. Marco and David seemed more skeptical, but Tobias was the first one to say "I accept." When even David all had agreed with him, we felt a tingle go through us, from the box. It wasn't unpleasant or anything, it was almost a rush. When it was done, the Andalite told me to throw the cube into his ship.

{The Yeerks must not recover our technology,} he said. {They will have to destroy my ship so as to leave no trace to be found by those authorities they do not yet control, so let the morphing device be destroyed with it.} I gave it my best toss, but it was heavier than I expected and I wasn't sure if the cube had hit the edge of the opening or not.

{Now, my human friends, you must get away. With the power you now have, you must not be taken alive, or the Yeerks will use your bodies as weapons against both your people and mine. They are here in even greater strength than we believed possible, and they will come to take me soon. You must get away.}

I started to protest but the Andalite insisted, and with his mind-voice, his thought-speech, I could feel how desperately he hoped we'd survive. {Please go, my young friends. I wish I had the chance to know you all better, but if you would help me, get away and do not let the deaths of my cousins go for nothing. They died to protect your planet, and I implore you in their name, to escape and warn whom you can so their sacrifice will have some gain. Wait for my people to return and tell them Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul was comforted by your friendship in his last moments.}

All of us but Tobias reluctantly turned to go. I think even David was a little in awe of Elfangor and would have stayed if there was any way to help him. Tobias lingered for a bit, and something seemed to pass between him and the Andalite. He touched the alien's hand again and Elfangor slumped a bit then touched Tobias's face. Tobias jumped back clutching his head, and finally ran to catch up with us.

"What was that about," demanded David as we climbed over a pile of rubble.

"Just saying good-bye," answered Tobias. "I think he did something else…" Tobias stopped talking and glanced up as new lights appeared in the sky bearing down on the construction site. We quickly dove down among the rubble, hiding as best we could.

What happened next was the worst thing I ever saw in my life. Yeerk ships landed, looking like evil, mechanical bugs, and Hork-Bajir, Taxxon and human controllers came out. More humans came from the direction of the nearby highway. The Yeerk leader, Visser Three, emerged from a ship that looked like some hideous medieval weapon, and we saw our second Andalite, as evil and menacing as Elfangor was noble and heroic.

Visser Three taunted the Andalite who had come through space to defend strangers, and morphed into a giant monster that ate our alien friend. We were all horrified, even David, and what made it worse was that Elfangor kept up an explanation in our heads, somehow only sending his thoughts to us, without letting the Yeerks even know we were there. He told us how Visser Three was the only Andalite controller and how he was the only Yeerk to have the power he had given us. He even fought back against the evil Yeerk, in its hideous & monstrous form, and as he was torn apart by its mouth he was still telling us to get away. His last words were {Stay alive, await my people's return…find the other…} And that was it.

While the Yeerks all laughed at the death of a warrior who was worth all of them put together, we sneaked out of the construction site as quietly as we could. It wasn't enough. We made a bit of noise, and someone heard us. I don't think they got a look at any of us, and they didn't seem to know where we were, because I saw them split into groups that ran in two different directions. Not that many of them were chasing us and we got away.

For now.

* * *

**Author's Note:** First time fic, sorry about any screwups in the transition from word processing to posting. This is basically a what-if alternate universe, where things are pretty similar, but with additional Animorphs and a slightly different group dynamic. I intend to follow the events of most of the early books, with some diversions to satisfy the changes in this timeline. I tend to the "more things change, the more they stay the same" philosophy of alternate history/timelines, so I hope to keep the characters fairly close to their portrayals in the books, with a couple of obvious exceptions. The girls are still in it, the next chapter will show what they've been up to.


	2. Chapter 2: Encounters

MELISSA

My name is Melissa. I can't tell you my last name or where I live. There are lives depending on keeping that secret. One of them is mine. I'm a normal teenaged girl in a middle school in a normal town. Just to look at me, you wouldn't think I'm anything special. I'm small, even for my age. I have blonde hair and some people say I'm pretty. My mom used to tell me that all the time, but not so much anymore. I'm really into gymnastics and I'm pretty good at it. I'm not cool or anything though.

Even my parents don't seem all that interested in me these days. I mean, they're really busy all the time. My dad is the assistant principal of my school so he's got hundreds of kids to worry about, and my mom is a part-owner of a beauty salon, where she does all the bookkeeping and paperwork. And both of them are really busy in this do-good kind of organization they both belong to. It's called the Sharing, and both adults and kids are involved in it, but they won't let me join. They say it's really not my kind of thing. They're important members and they're my parents, so I guess if anyone would know I'm not right for it, it would be them.

Sometimes, though, I'd like to belong to a group like that. I never really was good at making friends, aside from a couple of girls I met through gymnastics or school. And that's kind of where we come to my needing to keep secrets.

I was waiting outside the school for my mother to take me home. My dad works at the school, but we don't always go home together, because he has a lot of work that keeps him longer than the school day. When she came, she got out of the car and walked right past where I was waiting, to go talk to my dad. They both looked at me like they didn't want me to hear what they were saying, so I pretended I wasn't listening. Instead I did some stretches and bends that people think take a lot of concentration. They do, but I've been doing them as long as I've been able to remember, so I can kind of do it without thinking, and pay attention to what's going on around me.

I know I sound like a rotten kid, spying on my parent's private conversation, but I was feeling desperate to connect with them. I hardly knew what was going on in their lives anymore, and they didn't seem to give a rat's behind about mine. They were still talking too quietly for me to make out everything they were saying, but I picked out a few bits.

"…arrived early today…waiting for them as planned…surprised…over soon." That was my mother. It sounded like she was telling Daddy what had happened while she was working. What I could hear of his reply was no better.

"…keeping watch for stragglers. I'll be ready in case any of them try to go for the pool….bugs in reserve to respond to any…and a light…" That made almost no sense. I thought he might be talking about Sharing activities, but the part about bugs, well, I had no idea what they could be possibly be up to. Did he need a light because it would be dark?

Mom took me home, and I started on my homework. Plainly she wasn't paying much attention to me, she kept using her laptop computer - this brand new kind that's only for her work, I'm not even allowed to touch it - and talking on the phone, really quietly. She was worried about whatever was going on, so when I finished my homework and asked if I could go to the mall, she told me "Fine" without even looking at me.

The mall didn't really have anything interesting, and I was ready to leave when I ran into Rachel and Cassie. Rachel is about as close to a best friend as I have. We got to know each other from taking gymnastics classes together and of course, we go to the same school. Since we got into middle school, a lot of kids aren't too comfortable about being around me, because of my dad's job, but Rachel and Cassie were cool about that sort of thing.

Rachel isn't my best friend, because she and Cassie are best friends. They are pretty close and hang out together all the time, even though they aren't much alike. Cassie is calm and serious and gets along with people, and Rachel is kind of excitable and bold and adventurous. She doesn't really get in fights or treat people badly, it's more like she just expects everyone to be as cool and as tough as she is, and so she speaks kind of bluntly and right to the point. Cassie tries to make you feel good about stuff, but Rachel is just honest with you.

The weird thing is, you might get the impression that she's one of those mean kids who treat everyone bad, but that's not Rachel at all. Even though she's like, the most beautiful girl in our school or maybe in our town, and is always perfectly dressed and accessorized, she's really normal and doesn't act like it's a big deal. She can totally make fun of your clothes and you feel grateful that she's helping you, because she's always right about that kind of stuff. She makes it seem like a joke, rather than something embarrassing. She's totally awesome and if she and Cassie weren't so close, I'd jump at that chance to be her best friend.

Cassie's so nice though, that I can't even be jealous of her. She is as down to earth as Rachel, except it's obvious with her, because she usually wears jeans and practical tops that might have stains on them from when she cleans up the barn where her parents take care of sick or hurt animals. But where I'd look like a slob or a bum if I dressed like that, Cassie looks like someone who's so busy with real stuff that fashion and "fitting in" are just silly to her. She's also the complete physical opposite of Rachel, being short and kind of strong, and black, with short hair. Rachel is blonde and looks like a model. She's also tall. When we were younger, she was one of the best gymnasts in our group, but she's shot up so much she probably won't be good at it for much longer. That's about the only way I'm better than Rachel at anything. I think Cassie can be friends with her, because she's so different. With me, I sometimes feel like a second-rate copy of Rachel. Even with the gymnastics, it's like I'm only better because I got lucky with my size. Outside of a gym, I feel like a little kid tagging along.

Of course, when we met that night at the mall, Rachel wasn't superior or anything to me. She and Cassie were both really nice and let me hang out with them. I think Cassie liked having someone else who was into shopping and stuff who could actually make sense of what Rachel was saying, and Rachel liked having someone who agreed with her about the best places to buy skirts as opposed to tops or school shoes instead of dress-up shoes.

I hung out with Rachel and Cassie for the rest of the afternoon and it felt good, like I had real friends and was a normal girl, instead of the little weirdo whose parents had more important stuff to do. We were walking to the exit when Cassie said "Hey, Rachel, isn't that your cousin?" She kind of nodded at a group of boys standing by one of the store entrances.

Rachel gave her a big grin. "Oh, like you gotta ask?" She nudged me and whispered, really loud so Cassie could hear every word, "She liiiikes Jake. It's sooo sweet!" Then she made a gagging sound and laughed.

Cassie looked at her really patient, playing like she was being cool and Rachel was the immature one, but kind of ruined the impression by glancing over at Jake quickly. "Maybe we should go over and say hi?"

I looked over too and saw this quiet kid with him, named Tobias. "Maybe we should." I thought Tobias was cute. He was tall and had these dreamy eyes, like he was thinking of something poetic or something, but I was always too shy to say anything. He was usually by himself and I didn't think he had any friends, so I was also kind of worried that he might be some kind of freak. But if he was hanging around with Rachel's cousin, a guy that Cassie liked, he couldn't be too bad.

We started to move in their direction, but then Rachel stopped us. "Wait, is that Marco with him? You don't want to be near Jake when Marco's around, Cassie. He makes Jake look cool and normal, and he won't stop making fun of the way you and Jake stare at each other."

Cassie hesitated, and then I noticed the fourth kid in the group, "Oh, ewww. They're with the new kid, David. My dad has had him in the office a ton of times already. He's always doing pranks like putting stuff in the toilets or bringing a knife to school. He totally wouldn't want me having anything to do with David."

Rachel wasn't too happy about seeing David either. "Yeah, he gives me the creeps with the kind of stuff he says to me. I think he's got some kind of problem with girls or something, because he gets kind of intense and tries to, I don't know, belittle me." She turned toward the doors out of the mall. "Come on, Cassie. We can always talk to Jake another time, when he doesn't have the creep squad with him."

Cassie came with us, but she glanced back at Jake regretfully. "I'm sure he's just being nice," I told her. "He's probably not like David or Marco at all."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Oh, no. He's _just_ like Marco. But Marco's not so bad when you get to know him." Rachel snorted, and we started giggling.

* * *

It was later than we had thought, so Rachel decided to cut across the empty construction site. I exchanged looks with Cassie as we followed her, because neither one of us liked the idea – the construction site was where the bad kids hung out to get in trouble, and high school kids came to do stuff they weren't allowed to be doing. Homeless people were supposed to live there, and we'd hear rumors about criminals and murderers hiding from the police in the half-finished buildings.

"Hey, wait up, Rachel!" Cassie called. Rachel stopped and turned, an exasperated expression on her face. "Should we be going through the construction site this late?"

"It's shorter," said Rachel with a shrug. "You've got the farthest to go home, I thought you'd want to make the walk as quick as we could."

"It could be dangerous," I said hesitantly. Rachel rolled her eyes. She's never afraid of anything. "I mean, I heard they find bodies there sometimes."

"Those are just stories. No one's gonna do anything to us tonight. There's no serial killers in our town - that sounds like something Jake or those idiots he hangs out with would say."

I didn't want to look like a big chicken in front of her, so I gave Cassie a little shrug, and started towards the construction site with Rachel, Cassie tagging close behind, looking very nervous. And I have to admit, I was nervous, too. It's easy to listen to Rachel when she's acting all confident, but actually walking through the site was a whole different story. It's really creepy, and there's all sorts of strange shapes that could be building material or junk or monsters. Even if you know there's no such thing as monsters, try remembering that when a dark shadow looks like a crouching beast from a nightmare. I would have been embarrassed if Cassie wasn't looking around just as nervously, and even Rachel seemed to be paying a little more attention to our surroundings.

We were so busy looking around that we didn't see the spaceship until it was right above us. The old movies were wrong, it wasn't a saucer. It was kind of long, somewhere between a trailer and a truck in size, and more or less a cylinder with small wings, a bulging front and a curved sharp tail that stuck up over the top. It hovered above an empty spot, just ahead of us, and landed.

We dove behind a pile of huge white plastic pipes, but the ship didn't seem to spot us. It came to rest on the ground, and a really weird creature came out of an opening in the hull. It had four legs, and a tail like a scorpion, but where the head should have been, was the upper body of a person. A person with no mouth, and thick antennas. Oh, and covered in blue fur. She was shaped like nothing on Earth, and came out of a spaceship, but all I could think of was how strange it was to see a living creature that was blue.

Just after leaving the ship, she stumbled and slumped to the ground. "Ooh," cried Cassie softly. "I think it's hurt!" Without another word, she popped up from our hiding place and darted towards the fallen alien. Rachel bolted after her, and with a sigh of exasperation, I went with them. As we closed on the alien, her antennas twitched and turned in our direction, and I realized they were actually eyes on tiny stalks. Cassie figured out the same thing, and she stopped, holding her arms out low and to the side, with her hands open, looking calm and non-threatening.

"Don't worry," she said carefully and slowly to the creature. "I just want to help."

{You cannot help, I fear. I am dying.} The voice was really strange, until I realized there was no sound - she was sending thoughts directly into my mind. The alien was communicating with telepathy! The head turned to face us, while the antenna-eyes swiveled away to look around the area. {If not from my injuries, then when my enemies catch up to me. You must not be here when they do, or they will kill you as well. Tell no one what you have seen, or they will find and silence you. They may even do worse than kill...}

"Worse than kill us?" Rachel asked skeptically.

{They - the Yeerks - are here to take this planet for their own and enslave its inhabitants as they enslave all sentient races they are able to conquer.}

"Great," I grumbled. "I thought we were about to meet ET and it turns out this is…I don't know, War of the Worlds? The Thing?"

"Independence Day?" suggested Rachel.

{The Puppet Masters probably fits the best,} said the alien. We all stared at her.

"The what?" Cassie looked as confused as I felt.

{A story by one of your human writers. As I recall, more humans are familiar with the absurd motion picture that was adapted from the book. It was called "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."} She then proceeded to tell us all about the Yeerks, and their means of taking control of living bodies, gaining their memories and imitating them so perfectly their friends, parents or siblings couldn't tell the difference. She told us how they had spread across the universe, and how the Andalites, the alien's people, had come to Earth to stop them, only to have their ship destroyed.

{I thought to find…but no, I was too late, and my hope is forever beyond my reach,} the alien concluded. {You must go and be very careful. Avoid the Yeerks if you can, and do not let yourselves become infested.}

"You can't be dying and still tell us all this," protested Cassie. "If you could explain something about your anatomy, I could give you first aid, and my parents are veterinarians. Not that you're an animal, but I mean, they're used to working on lots of different species! I'm sure they could help."

{No, the damage is…complex. It is not entirely anatomical. If it were, I could heal myself with certain technology in my possession, but it is not working now. } She paused, as if an idea had suddenly come to her. {Will one of you please go into my ship? You will see a blue…cube. Retrieve it for me.}

"I'll do it," said Rachel. She stepped through the opening the alien had emerged from, and came out herself a moment later holding a blue box, which she brought to the alien. She took it, and glanced down at the box, before slumping again in defeat. {Thank you for your assistance, but it did not work. I still cannot morph. There is nothing more you can do for me. Please, leave before the Yeerks find me.}

"Guys, I hate to say this, but I think we should probably do what she wants," I told Rachel and Cassie. "If her box thing didn't work, and she says there's no way to help her…"

{I am actually male,} said the alien in a tone that sounded a little offended, {but, yes. I must insist…}

"Oh my gosh," I burst out "I'm so sorry! I guess I just assumed you were female, like us."

"So are female Andalites pink?" asked Rachel, teasing me.

To all of our surprise, the alien laughed weakly. {Not even all human cultures use pink and blue to differentiate genders. I am a male Andalite. My name is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul and my rank is Prince. I have two parents as you humans do, and a younger brother. I have no mate or children…among my people.}

We all introduced ourselves to Elfangor, Rachel and Cassie telling _him_ their names, and then I gave mine. When he heard my name, the Andalite reacted rather strongly. {Tell me,} he asked. {Do you have a relative named _?}

"That's my father!" I said, surprised. I'm not going to tell you his name, because it's kind of unique. It would make us all too easy to find. Anyway, at this point, I had a lot of questions for Elfangor. "How do you know him? How do you know about human cultures and, and movies and science fiction and stuff like that?"

He hesitated before replying. {Years ago, probably before you were born, I came to this planet. I lived here for a while, in this region, in fact, and I encountered some humans. One of them was a young man. Your father, I suppose, Melissa. He would not remember me, as he was unaware of my true nature, and all traces of my time here were eliminated, even the memories of people I met. }

Elfangor straightened up a bit, as if he had decided something. {This cannot be a coincidence. Fate…or someone else…seems to have guided our meeting at this place. } He held the blue box. {With this, I can give you a tool you may use to protect yourselves from the Yeerks.}

"What does it do?" I was starting to get a little nervous. I mean, I meet an alien and it turns out he knew my dad? What are the odds? I wasn't sure I wanted anything more to do with this.

{This device gives living creatures the power to morph into other animal lifeforms. That is how I passed as a human during my first visit to Earth, and what I attempted to do to heal my injuries. I can use the device on all three of you. From what I have seen, you each remind me in a different way of another human I ...was friends with. In you, Cassie and Rachel, I perceive a great kindness and an indomitable spirit. And Melissa, you are the child of another human I once met. I am breaking our people's laws, but I cannot believe we have come together here without a purpose.}

It sounded inspiring. For what seemed like the first time in my life, someone wanted me to do something important, or saw me as someone who was kind of special. "I'll do it," I offered.

"Are there side effects?" Cassie, the doctors' daughter, wanted to know. Elfangor told us the device was safe, that no one had the ability it gave except the Andalites and one Andalite who had been taken by the Yeerks. He told us how to use it to copy animals' DNA and explained the limits and the dangers of the device.

{You can use the extraordinary life forms of your planet to evade infestation and enslavement. In a morph, the Yeerks cannot take you permanently, because when you demorph, the Yeerk will…be lost. You can use the appearance of animals to blend in and pass unnoticed so you may learn who the Controllers are and whom you need to be wary of.}

Rachel and Cassie both agreed and we all touched the box. There was a weird sensation that I can't think how to describe. I guess you can't expect human language to be able to cover the effects of alien superpower devices.

"What about when the other Andalites come?" I asked. "Should we tell them about you? For that matter, are there any other survivors? Maybe we can help them, if they can morph and hide on Earth."

"Yeah!" said Rachel, enthusiastically. "We could totally help them fight! If we got a bunch of Andalite survivors, we could hide them and teach them about Earth and help them find the Yeerks! We could…."

{No!} Elfangor interrupted her with a shout that hit our minds hard and prevented us from hearing what Rachel said next. {It is possible...some may have survived, but I think it unlikely. We Andalites need others of our people...we are not meant to be alone. We also do not...do well with other species. Few of my cousins in the expeditionary force...have my experience with humans. They will only see your weak bodies and primitive technology. If any have survived, with the loss of our ship and our leaders, they will be alone and trapped away from the People. They will seek only to hurt the Yeerks as much as possible and die with honor.} He paused sadly, as if regretting the waste and mourning their deaths.

{They will not think twice about using you to do as much damage as they can. You should not fear them, and if the chance comes to help an Andalite safely, I would hope you take it, but you should be wary. If the Andalite fleet comes, they will do what is needful, and your help would be insignificant, even with the power I have given you. I gave it to you so that you might be able to save yourselves, not risk your lives in our war.}

We all promised to be careful, and Elfangor seemed to relax. {Now, for the final time, please get far away! If the Yeerks capture you now, your bodies will be prized above all other humans for the power you now have, and that power will be used to deadly effect against your people and mine! }

We started to go, then I turned and gave the alien a hug. I don't know why. I guess I wanted to show him I was grateful for all he had done. He was hurt fighting to save us and our planet, and even while dying, he still was looking out for us. I think the others felt the same. Rachel shook his hand and Cassie repeated my hug. He seemed to understand, but then he had lived among humans, so I guess he knew why we did stuff like that.

{Please, go swiftly, children. My ears are better than yours and I think I hear footsteps.} He pointed in the opposite direction from which we had entered the construction site. {They are coming from that direction. They may be controllers, so do not let them see you.} We ran another way and ducked into an abandoned building. We crept through the building until we came to an unfinished part of the wall and slipped out that way.

Rachel stopped and pointed at a large concrete pipe. "We can hide in there," she said. "If we hear people leaving, maybe we can find out who they are. If they know about aliens and stuff, they'll be Controllers."

"I guess that makes sense," I said. "I mean, that's a start to finding out who we have to be afraid of." Cassie agreed and we ducked into the pipe and hunched down together, far from the mouth, so no one could see us.

Outside of the pipe, after waiting about ten minutes or so, we saw another spaceship fly briefly past. It was much bigger than the Andalite ship, and gave the impression of being all sharp edges and points, like an ancient weapon. The very sight of it made us ease further back into the large pipe.

We crouched there for a few minutes, when we began hearing thought-speak voices in our head. One was Elfangor, and the other sounded similar, but I don't know how to describe it. It wasn't really a sound. You just knew the alien using it was evil and cruel, where Elfangor was kind and noble. The other "voice" was gloating about Elfangor and how when the Yeerks conquered the humans, they'd have so many host bodies, they could overrun the Andalites. Then there was a horrible noise, and this enemy, who Elfangor called Visser Three, started boasting about an "Antarean Bogg morph." I couldn't stand it any longer, and crept to the edge of the pipe. Cassie and Rachel tried to drag me back, but we all stopped and stared, paralyzed by the sight of the giant monster looming over the construction site. When we saw it lift up Elfangor and stuff him in its mouth, even while he fought back, it was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen in my life.

* * *

When it was all over, we were all clinging together in a hug, holding onto one another for strength. We began to quietly sneak out of the construction site, but Cassie knocked over a smaller pipe, which clanged against our hiding place. Shouts of alarm came from the landing area and we darted back into the building.

Rachel and I each peeked out of a space where I guess windows were supposed to go, and we saw everything. We saw the evil-looking Yeerk spaceships. The little ones that looked like giant insects, which Elfangor had called Bug fighters, and the enormous Blade Ship, which we had glimpsed from our pipe hideout.

We saw the blade-covered Hork-Bajir, and the hideous, centipede-like Taxxons, and a bunch of humans running around in the construction site, looking for something…or someone. We saw the Dracon beams from the Yeerk ship blast our Andalite friend's ship into nothingness, and I wanted to cry, for Elfangor, who had helped us, and who we left to die alone, and for myself and my friends.

Suddenly, the world was different. Actually, it was the same world it had been this morning, only now I knew the truth about how bad it really was. Now problems like my parents being too busy for me were a joke, because I had to worry about me, them and now my friends getting alien brain-stealing slugs crawling into our ears to take over our bodies.

We had crept back into the building after the Controllers had searched it, so we just stayed there until they left. Most of them seemed to be looking in the wrong direction, anyway. After we decided it was safe, we left the site, and immediately split up to go to our own homes. No one wanted to talk about what we had seen. I just wanted to get into my own bed and hide under the covers until I fell asleep. Maybe tomorrow, I'd realize this was all just a bad dream.

Yeah, right. I don't get lucky like that anymore. Now, lucky means my parents aren't home to catch me sneaking in late. I was lucky that way, so I didn't have to answer any questions about where I had been. I was kind of hurt though. They were probably off doing good with their stupid Sharing, right when I really wanted one of them to see I was upset and give me a hug and tell me everything was going to be okay. Even if I couldn't tell them about aliens – neither of them would believe something like that without proof, much less that some guy they met years ago was actually an alien – they used to know, when I was little, if I was upset or worried about a meet coming up or school or something, and they'd comfort me. That hadn't happened for the longest time, between my getting older and them finding other things to hold their interest, but just then, alone in that house, knowing that aliens were invading our world, I really wanted my mommy and daddy.

* * *

**Author's note:**_ I split the group up, because I wasn't confident of being able to handle the dynamics of a bigger group right away. They will likely interact down the line. I weighed different rosters for the division into two groups, but ultimately went with this one, because I felt it was the most organically occurring. Melissa would most likely be with Rachel & thus Cassie, and David's outsider status made Tobias the most probable candidate of the canon Animorphs to have an acquaintance with him. Also, for 13 year old kids, dividing the group along gender lines is pretty much par for the course._


	3. Chapter 3: Changes

JAKE

After we arrived in my neighborhood, we split up. David looked pale and shaken, Tobias angry and sad at the same time, and Marco kept demanding to know if that had been a dream, asking us if we had really seen what we just saw. Finally, as we got to my house, I told them we should all head home and not tell anyone about this. David protested that maybe we should tell some adults, claiming that his dad worked for the government, until Marco pointed out that if he _could _do anything, he'd be just the kind of person the Yeerks would want, and might already be a controller. Tobias & Marco were both totally on board with the not-telling idea, so David agreed. He even promised he wouldn't tell his dad without letting us know first. He seemed kind of rebellious about that, but I think he's also not the kind of kid who shares every little thing he does with his parents.

We split up, David to his house, Marco toward the apartment complex where he and his dad lived now, and Tobias to the part of town where he lived with his uncle. I went in and made small talk for a minute with my parents, then I went to bed. It took me a while to fall asleep, and just as I was dozing off, I heard my parents talking loudly to Tom. He came in really late, his club meeting had gone on too long and he didn't think to catch a ride home. He sounded apologetic but I heard him grumbling and throwing stuff like he was mad, when he got to his bedroom.

* * *

The next morning, my mom woke me up when Tobias came by. He was really excited and blurted out as soon as we were alone, that he had actually turned into his pet cat, the way the Andalite had said the night before after he got home. I didn't want to believe him – that would have made it all real – but he kept insisting, and going on and on about how cool it was to be a cat and all things you could do.

Finally, he told me not scream or anything, and promptly started shrinking and growing fur. In just a couple of minutes, Tobias was a cat. To both our surprise, he could still talk to me, directing thought-speech at me the way the Andalite had. We also realized that he was responding as much to cat instincts as to his own intelligence. Chasing strings that I jerked along the floor was suddenly a great game to him.

He morphed back to human and we discovered that clothes don't change with you. Luckily it was just boys who had been at the sight. Can you imagine if Tobias and I had had girlfriends who had been with us at the construction site? Weird, huh?

Anyway, once Tobias got me to accept that morphing was real, I was still reluctant to try it. It still felt like too big of a leap from what I knew and understood. Already I had met an alien and seen people under the influence of other aliens. I had seen a friend turn into a cat. I was afraid to get any more strangeness in my life, but Tobias insisted that the Andalite had given us the powers for a reason and that we needed them to fight back against the Yeerk invaders. He really surprised me when I tried to get him to leave me out of it.

"Jake, you're the only one Marco will listen to. Even David would probably go along with you – he likes to shoot his mouth off, but if it was important, I think you could get him to cooperate the best. Me, I'm okay on my own, but I couldn't get anyone to listen to me. David takes too many chances. Neither of us knows Marco well enough. You're the only one who can bring us all together to fight the Yeerks! We need all four of us in this fight."

That's when I realized – it wasn't the weirdness that was holding me back at all. I knew Tobias was right, that I had to do this. I was afraid I couldn't hack it, that I would screw up and get these other guys killed or I'd fail and let the aliens take the whole planet. But he was right. I had to do it, if there was no one else. So I squared my shoulders and fetched my dog.

With Tobias' advice, I acquired Homer's DNA and changed into a dog. I didn't think it was working at first, until Tobias pointed out the fur growing on my arms. Then I continued the process, feeling my bones change, without actually hurting. My senses changed and my nose got a lot sharper. I started freaking out over the scent of another dog until Tobias's yelling was able to get through to me. There was also a tense moment when Tom walked in on us, but he just yelled at me for barking and left. I thought I detected something strange about him, but I was still trying to adjust to a dog's senses and mind, so I didn't think too much about it.

After I morphed back to human, I called Marco and Tobias called David. We agreed to meet at his house to figure out what to do next. While I waited for Marco to come over, I talked with Tom for a bit, but it was strange – it turned out he had quit the high school basketball team a couple of days before. He acted like my not making the team was no big deal, like it was getting a B instead of an A on a test. It turned out that he was really more interested in his new club, the Sharing, than basketball these days. He even encouraged me to join up. I didn't feel like it though. I mean, it's this do-gooder organization, but Marco says things like that are never as cool as they make them sound, and they were probably trying to trick you into paying dues or buying tee-shirts or something.

* * *

Anyway, Marco showed up and we took off, heading for David's house. Tobias was waiting for us there, and we told David and Marco.

"Are you insane?" asked Marco casually. "Do you really expect us to believe you turned into animals?"

"Come on, seriously," said David. "we're not idiots."

"Um, yes, you are," I said. "Or maybe you believe that the **alien** we saw last night was joking about giving us the power to turn into animals?"

Marco and David gave each other a look. "Maybe it wa…"

"Oh for…" Tobias rolled his eyes. "It. Was. Real. Here, look." He reached into a glass case with a couple of mice for David's pets, and lifted one of the squirming little furry things out. He held it out to us and explained that he was concentrating on it. Then he morphed the mouse. Marco and David both yelled out and jumped up on David's bed. Tobias darted for the door and started to squirm through the crack below, but I had been waiting for something like that and snagged his tail before he got halfway under. I yanked him back into the room and scooped him up.

"Tobias, concentrate. You're not a mouse," I said loudly, holding him in front of my face.

{Okay! Jeez, Jake. I hear really good with these ears – shouting just makes it worse.}

"Hey! He talked in my head! Like the alien," said David, looking surprised. Then he jerked back again. "Okay, man. I believe you. You're the mouse."

"What was that?" I asked, looking from the Tobias-mouse in my hand to David, who was getting off the bed to come closer.

{I asked David if he believed it was me. I only asked him, though.} Tobias replied.

"Hey," said David. "That's kind of cool! It's like totally secret communication. You guys didn't hear him ask?" He glanced from me to Marco. Then he opened the bedroom door abruptly, and a cat wandered in. David grabbed it by the neck, hoisted him up and petted him. "Megadeth here always comes by when he smells the mice." The cat had twitched a bit but suddenly calmed down. "I think it's working," said David.

"Okay, wait a minute here," said Marco, getting off the bed and standing up. I set Tobias on the floor and he began to shoot up to human size again, before grabbing at his clothes. Marco stopped the tirade he had been about to launch to stare at Tobias's growing form with a sick expression on his face. "…that is gross coming and going."

"Cool," said David. "I want to morph next."

"Wait, hold on," I said. "We should probably get out of the house so there's no more accidents and we're away from your cat. I almost got caught by my brother, and we don't want people noticing there are two cats around. Marco, why don't you acquire…Megadeth…and we'll head out to the woods. Then we can practice all we want. There's no one out there, except for maybe Cassie's family's farm, but we can just stay away from her place."

"No way. This is even more insane now that it's real. I am not turning into some cat or mouse." Marco folded his arms defiantly.

"How about a snake?" asked David innocently.

"Oh, haha. Yeah, something gross, that's what I'll turn into. You know, that's not even a funny joke," Marco rolled his eyes at David.

"Uh, Marco," I said, staring at the floor behind him. "I think he means the snake that crawled out from under the bed."

"INSANE!" bellowed Marco, as he jumped up to the bed in one bound. "There is a HUGE snake in a house!"

"Oh, calm down," said Tobias. "That's just Spawn. He doesn't even have poisoned fangs anymore." David was too busy to say anythng, laughing hysterically as he leaned against the wall.

Marco tentatively leaned off the bed to peer at the cobra slithering toward Tobias, who was pulling his shoes on. He flicked his tongue at Tobias. "Hey, he smells the mouse," crowed David, and started laughing some more. "Come on, Marco. He's a snake, you're short…it's a match made in heaven."

"Try it Marco," I urged. "Come on. If you really don't want to, we could probably catch you a chipmunk or something…"

"I am not turning into ANY kind of animal," ranted Marco.

"Yeah, you are," I said. "Otherwise, you'd have to leave us to do it all by ourselves and screw everything up."

He gave me a dirty look, but reached out and grabbed the snake's tail. It spun sharply towards him, and he jerked back, but did not let go. Soon the cobra slumped over and lay down on the floor. Marco let go of it and scuttled off the bed nearest to the door. The rest of us joined him and a few minutes later we were trotting out of our neighborhood to a place we hoped no one would see us.

* * *

When we got to the woods, we tromped a ways into the trees where no one could see us. I morphed Homer again, using my ears and nose to make sure there was no one else around. Then David morphed his cat. Tobias grabbed him before he could bolt at the sight of Homer, and while he hissed and spit at first, he calmed down and started talking back to us in thought speech. Then it was Marco's turn. Tobias put David down and went over by Marco.

My best friend's skin began to develop patterns that looked like scales, his arms dwindled to merge with his body, which also got skinnier and lost all its parts that stuck out, until he was shrunk down to a long skinny shape, like a rope. Marco disappeared into a pile of his clothes. Tobias stepped closer and tugged the shirt free, letting the cobra slither out. Suddenly, Marco lunged and sunk his fangs into Tobias' hand. Tobias gave an abrupt yell and fell back clutching his hand in pain.

{Marco, relax,} I ordered. {Remember, you're human! Calm down, stop biting.}

"Yeah," Tobias added, wincing as he cradled his hand.

{Don't worry, Tobias,} added David. {If he's really a duplicate of Spawn, it's all cool. Spawn has no venom. I've been bit by him before.}

{Sorry, man} Marco apologized. {I-I guess I got lost in the snake.}

{It's okay, Marco} I told him. {We've all done that, so far. Just everybody concentrate, and let's demorph now.}

We all gradually lost our fur or scales and shot up to our human heights, rejoining Tobias in human form. We tried not to look at each other while we grabbed our clothes, but I saw something that surprised me.

"Hey, Marco! You're wearing bike shorts!" David and Tobias both turned to see Marco stepping into a pair of pants, but with a pair of stretchy black bike shorts already on him.

"Uh, yeah." Marco looked embarrassed. "My dad was…too busy to do the laundry this week, so I had to wear them instead of my underpants."

What Marco probably meant was that his dad had forgot. Since his mom died a couple of years ago, Marco's dad wasn't doing too good. He didn't hold down the same job for very long and he kind of just sat around all day or slept or drank beer. He forgot to do stuff sometimes so Marco had to take care of a lot of the shopping and errands. They live in this tiny apartment with no laundry machines, so his dad has to drive to the coin-op laundromat. When he doesn't remember, or have the cash, Marco has to fake his way around the clean clothes issue. That wasn't the important thing right now, though.

"Marco, you didn't have to pull those on again. You de-morphed with the shorts still on you! That means the shorts changed _with_ your body."

"Hey, that's kind of cool," said David. "Do you think it's the material, or the color…"

"Maybe Spandex is really an Andalite invention," Marco joked.

"Maybe it's because they fit so tight?" asked Tobias.

"Yeah, that makes sense," I agreed. "We should all try to get clothes that fit as tight as possible and see if they change when we morph. Or else figure out a way to morph more normal clothes." Otherwise, we'd have to carry them with us if we went anyplace people might see us after we changed.

Marco morphed and demorphed some more, and while he couldn't keep any of his other clothes on, the bike shorts stayed. Then he went behind a bush and took off the shorts, which David pulled on over his underpants and tried morphing his cat again. He was able to keep the shorts through the morph, so we knew it wasn't just a talent Marco had. By this time, Marco and David were both sure of how to get control of the morphing process and their animal forms, so we decided to call it a day and head back.

Tobias was still holding his hand like it hurt where he was bitten, and he staggered a couple of times. "Guys," he croaked suddenly, "I think there's something wrong here." He was turning really pale, and he suddenly stumbled and sat down hard. "I can't feel my hand."

David was looking alarmed. "It can't be Spawn. I got bit by him and I never felt anything! I mean, yeah, I felt the fangs, but it didn't get worse like this. His poison was totally removed, I swear!"

Suddenly Marco smacked his forehead. "We're idiots! That's not how Spawn is _naturally_ though, is it? In his normal state, he's got poison in his teeth! The Andalite says the morphing power copies the DNA. I didn't turn into Spawn, I turned into a snake that was made from Spawn's DNA, and his DNA has poisonous fangs!"

"That's probably it!" said David. "Jake, is Homer neutered?"

"Yeah," I remembered taking him to the vet to have the operation.

"Well, the dog you turned back there into wasn't," David nodded smugly, pleased with himself for noticing that.

"So, where do we get an antidote for cobra venom?" asked Tobias quietly, from where he leaned against a tree with his eyes closed. We all looked at one another, starting to worry now. Then Marco laughed.

"Duh!" He grinned. "Tobias, it goes both ways. Morph into something else! You'll be making a copy of an animal from its DNA, and poison in your bloodstream is not a DNA thing. You should be fine."

"Okay," he said weakly. "Just get back. I panicked from you guys looming over me last time I morphed a mouse, I don't want to get lost in the woods if I forget again." As he began changing, we all backed away, leaving him alone in the clearing. Soon Tobias was a mouse.

{So far, so good guys! I feel fine, no more pain in my paws or anything.} Tobias thought spoke from his spot under the tree. {Hey, are those seeds?} He darted over to a bare patch in the middle of the clearing, when suddenly he froze. {Danger!} Before any of us realized what was happening, a huge bird dropped out of the sky and grabbed Tobias in its talons.

{Ahhhh!} A scream of fear and pain stabbed into our heads in thought-speech. The bird started to flap and rise, before any of us could move. Then we all ran towards it, hoping to get Tobias back before it was too late, but there was no way we'd get there in time. But the bird seemed to find it heavy going, and I realized it was because Tobias had started demorphing.

In no time at all, he was way bigger than the bird that held him in its claws. He still looked like a mouse, but he was the size of a small kid now, as they crashed back to the ground and rolled over. By the time we got there, Tobias was fully human, and lying mostly on top of the bird that had tried to eat him. He also showed no signs of injury, so Marco was right about that.

He sat up, and looked down at the bird, which was lying in a jumbled mess of feathers, flailing around helplessly. Tobias reached out and placed a hand on the bird's brown feathered back and it calmed down. He stood up and grinned. "Now I can morph a bird, too. Let's see what flying is like!"

"Maybe we should hold off for now," suggested Marco. "We've had way too many morphing accidents today. If we keep this up, someone's going to get hurt. Besides, you've morphed more than me, and I'm already tired from it. Remember, the Andalite said if we stay too long we get stuck. What happens if you're too tired to morph back, or something bigger and nastier hurts you too badly? What if you forget an fly too far away for us to help you get control?"

Tobias got a stubborn look on his face like he had earlier, when he was convincing me to go along with this morphing stuff. But he had told me then that I had to be in charge, so I decided to step in.

"He's got a point, Tobias. We're not going to get much done today, so let's take a break before we morph anymore." I looked down at the injured bird. "Besides, maybe we should do something about this bird. I mean, it's all hurt and stuff because of us."

"Hey, it's just a bird. And it tried to eat Tobias." David was starting to look bored. "I gotta get home if we're not gonna being doing any more morphing stuff. You guys can play bird rescue if you want."

"Okay," I said. "Why don't you guys go home? Marco and I will just go to Cassie's and let her or her dad know about the bird, and then maybe later I'll call you, or else we can deal with this at school on Monday."

Marco and I walked the short distance to Cassie's farm. As we reached the end of the gravel drive, we saw a police car pulling out. The car turned as it backed onto the street and then pulled up alongside us. The police officer driving it rolled down his window to look at us. "Where are you boys going?"

I pointed up towards Cassie's house. "Just up to the farm there, Officer," I said. "The girl there, her father's a vet who rescues wild animals that get hurt. We found an injured bird in the woods and we're going to tell him about it."

"Do you know those girls there?" he asked suspiciously.

"Uh, I only know of one girl who lives there, that's Cassie, the doctor's daughter. We go to school together."

"Well, where were you last night?" he asked, changing the subject.

"The mall," I answered.

"Oh? All night?"

"Well, no. I walked home in time for my curfew," I said, nudging Marco before he could comment about the room service when you stay overnight in the mall.

"Did you go through the old construction site near the mall?" The cop was looking really hard at us, now. I started to feel kind of nervous.

Marco laughed out loud all of a sudden. "Yeah, right." He rolled his eyes. "Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes never wants to go through the construction site. We had to walk the whole long way around. I almost didn't get home on time, because some people think there might be ax murderers hiding out there." He kind of jerked his shoulder and cocked his head in my direction, so there was no doubt who "some people" meant.

"What's this all about, officer?" I asked, trying to sound like I was embarrassed by Marco making fun of me. I was actually glad. I was a little nervous with a strange cop asking me about last night, right out of the blue like that, and I didn't have a good story ready.

He glared at us a little bit before saying, "Some kids were fooling around in there. They were setting off fireworks, and they could have made a huge mess and hurt themselves. Maybe some other people as well. If you hear of anybody who was there last night, or who likes to hang out there and fool around, you should let an officer know. Do you go to the middle school near there?" When we nodded, he went on. "Tell your assistant principal. I was just telling the girls at that farm, Mr. C is a good man. He won't overreact or or punish you, but he'll make sure no one is doing anything dangerous."

We both nodded and promised we would, but even if we hadn't met an alien, that would have been a total lie. Marco already thinks the assistant principal is evil and has it in for him.

"Say, you look familiar," the cop had been about to drive off, but looked out of the car at me again. "Are you related to a kid named Tom?" When I admitted he was my brother, the officer said he knew him from the Sharing, where the cop was an adult supervisor. He praised Tom and suggested I join the Sharing too, saying the kind of things Tom is always going on about, like how great the Sharing is, and how much fun we can have. After what seemed way too long, he drove away.

Marco and I exchanged a look. "What do you think that was about?" I wondered. "Did someone report something? Maybe the police found traces of the aliens…"

Marco snorted. "Get real, Jake. He's probably one of them. A Controller."

I stared at Marco. "That's crazy. A cop?"

"No, it's perfect. Who do people call when they see something strange, or someone acting suspicious? This way, the cops know if anyone is about to find out about the Yeerks and can hush it up. Remember, they heard something and went looking for us last night at the site. Maybe they saw us from far away and realized we're kids."

I didn't want it to be true. If it was, that meant there were no grown-ups we could go to with this. Tobias was right, it was all up to us. When I said so though, Marco flipped out.

"Jake, are you insane? They have grown-ups. They have cops. People who trust the cops would turn us in if they caught us, like he said C-man would. There is no WAY we can do anything about them. Even if I can morph a cobra, that's not going to be much help against guns that vaporize spaceships. You saw the Andalite hit that monster Visser Three turned into with his tailblade. Even if poison works on it, we'd never make a dent, if all four of us morphed cobras and bit him. We have got to stop this stuff right now. We'll tell Tobias and David and make them promise not to morph either."

"Look, let's talk about this later." I turned and started walking back home.

"What about Cassie's dad and the bird?" asked Marco.

"I'll call when we get home. I'm worried now."

We went home, to try to pretend our lives were still normal. That we had nothing to fear from aliens or cops or principals or birds or snake bites or anything.


End file.
